Zimbabwe’s Tsvangirai Has Marriage Blocked on Protests

Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had his scheduled marriage to Elizabeth Macheka
tomorrow canceled by a court that ruled he had committed himself
to another woman under customary law.

Tsvangirai, 60, has this week faced two law suits by women
who say he cannot marry Macheka because he had married one and
got engaged to the other. He says the actions are part of a
political campaign to besmirch his reputation ahead of an
election where he will be pitted against President Robert
Mugabe, 88, to lead the country.

“The marriage certificate that had been issued to the
premier has been canceled,” said Everson Samkange, the lawyer
for Lorcadia Karimatsenda, also known as Karimatsenga Tembo, who
says Tsvangirai married her under customary law last year. “If
he goes ahead with the wedding he will be committing bigamy,”
Samkange told reporters outside the court.

Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party are
set to compete against Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National
Union - Patriotic Front in elections that are due to follow a
constitutional referendum, a date for which is yet to be set.
Mediation by the 15-nation Southern African Development
Community eased a decade-long political stalemate between Mugabe
and Tsvangirai, forcing them into a temporary coalition
government in 2009.

‘Honorable Comrades’

“The claims are part of a grand political scheme to
besmirch, to malign and to soil the image of the prime minister
for political gain,” Luke Tamborinyoka, a spokesman for
Tsvangirai, said in an e-mailed statement before today’s ruling
in the Harare Magistrates Court.

Yesterday a South African woman, Nosipho Regina Shilubane,
sought to block the marriage to Elizabeth Macheka by filing a
suit at the Magistrates Court, saying that she became engaged to
Tsvangirai after she met him in 2009, according to the court
documents. That case was thrown out today, Tamborinyoka said in
an interview.

“It’s absolutely hogwash to blame us or politics; it’s
nonsense,” said Rugare Gumbo, a spokesman for Zanu-PF, in an
interview. “He loves women. We really don’t do that. We are
honorable comrades as a party.”

Tsvangirai will appeal against the cancellation later today
or tomorrow morning, Thabani Mpofu, Tsvangirai’s lawyer, said
outside the court.